Spir Dynamics 1717-23 4/18/00; 5/23/76; 9/30/76

DOCTRINE OF MOTIVATION

A. Introduction.

1. A Working Hypothesis.

a. God’s love is eternal; it has always existed; there never was a time when it did not exist. It has no beginning.

b. God’s love has no beginning, because God is eternal. Therefore, His love is eternal.

c. God’s love exists with or without an object.

d. God’s love has always existed along with the righteousness and justice of God, because they are all a part of the same person. The love of God can never be understood apart from the righteousness and justice of God.

e. God’s love has always existed as a part of the integrity of God.

f. The fact that God is eternal means that God has no beginning. Therefore, God does not have motivation or emotion.

g. Both motivation and emotion have a beginning with the existence of mankind. Mankind has emotion in the body and motivation in the soul.

(1) Emotion in the body is not a part of or the criterion for the spiritual life.

(2) Motivation in the soul is the result of Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness. This is the birth of reciprocal love for God as a part of the spiritual life.

h. The illustration is David. It says in 1 Sam 13:14 and Acts 13:22 that David was a man after God’s own heart. David’s motivation is expressed in terms of the integrity of God. This is found in three psalms.

(1) Ps 89:14, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Unfailing love and doctrine go before You.” Unfailing love and doctrine are the simultaneous advance of our spiritual life.

(2) Ps 32:5, “I acknowledge my sin to You, and my wrongdoing I did not hide. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ Then You did forgive the guilt of my sin.” God not only forgive David the sins that

(3) Ps 33:4-5, “For the word of the Lord is unright and all of His work is in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the unfailing love of the Lord.”

(a) Human motivation has a beginning in reciprocity, when the word of the Lord is part of the soul.

(b) God’s eternal integrity motivates the believer, but the believer does not motivate God, ever.

2. God motivates us. We do not motivate God.

3. Motivation has a beginning. God does not have a beginning. God does not have motivation.

4. Motivation is a human function, not a divine function. Therefore, motivation can only be used of God as an anthropopathism.

5. God functions on His eternal integrity with emphasis on the love of God. Integrity is not motivation; it is on a higher plain than motivation. God’s integrity motivates us, and this includes righteousness and justice as well as love. God does not have to be motivated, because He knew all that would ever happen billions of years before it ever occurred.

6. God operates on the basis of integrity, never on the basis of emotion or motivation. Man has motivation. Motivation is a part of our spiritual life. Motivation has a beginning and an end. God does not have a beginning or an end. Therefore, motivation cannot be a part of God. 7. Blessing or punishment from God originates from His eternal integrity. When God punishes us, His righteousness and justice have not changed; therefore, neither has His love toward us changed.

a. The righteousness of God is the principle—the standard of integrity that approves or disapproves.

b. The justice of God is the function—the execution of His integrity that blesses or punishes.

c. The love of God is the demonstration of His integrity that provides divine solutions and motivation—principles related to spiritual growth.

d. So what the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God executes, and the love of God demonstrates—all expressed by the grace of God.

8. Divine love is the key to God’s integrity as a point of reference, not God’s so-called motivation. Omniscience always functioned under the integrity of God, so that divine love is the point of reference, not motivation.

9. Divine integrity has always existed. Emotion and motivation as creature functions have not always existed; they had a beginning in time with human beings. Good and pure motivation begins with knowledge of Bible doctrine, because we do not advance in the spiritual life without simultaneous action from persistance in perception of doctrine and motivation from reciprocal love for God motivation.

10. Motivation begins with knowledge of Bible doctrine as epignosis. Motivation is the thinking and action of Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness.

11. Summary.

a. God operates on His integrity, not on motivation.

b. Motivation is a human function, whether it is emotion or thinking, not a divine function.

c. God motivates us; we do not motivate God.

12. Conclusion.

a. God motivates us through divine revelation of Himself in the infallible word of God.

b. God makes His motivation perspicuous through the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit, Jn 14:26, “But our Mentor, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will cause you to remember all that I said to you.”

B. The Principle of the Integrity of God.

1. Through divine love in eternity past, righteousness and justice are expressed in antecedent grace (God’s grace in eternity past). This principle is the basis for reciprocal love, without which we will fail miserably when tested.

2. God’s love in eternity past is related to His omniscience to provide antecedent grace for the human race.

3. In eternity past the love of God divine solution for mankind was always compatible with His righteousness and justice.

4. Solutions are related to discipline and blessing, which are related to the integrity of God.

a. The absolute righteousness of God is the principle of divine integrity.

b. The divine justice of God is the function of the divine integrity.

c. The divine love of God is the demonstration of divine integrity, Rom 5:8. 5. God’s perfect righteousness is the standard of divine integrity. God’s perfect justice is the execution of divine integrity. God’s perfect love is the function of divine integrity, plus all the grace solutions of divine integrity, including salvation and our unique spiritual life.

6. While the righteousness of God approves or disapproves, the justice of God provides blessing or judgment and discipline, while the love of God provides divine solutions, which are all accomplished in grace.

C. The Problem of Love Motivation.

1. The Definition of Motivation.

a. Motivation means inducement, incentive, influence, ground for something, the goal or the object of one’s actions. Motivation can be either thinking or emotion.

2. Incentive used in motivation is used for inspiring of or inducing emotion like increasing a person’s salary or stimulating competitive activity for rewards (which is everything that Christianity is not; Christianity is never competitive).

3. Motivation is not used for God, with the exception of anthropopathism.

4. The serious student of the word of God must learn to distinguish between motivation as a human function and the impersonal love of God as expressed in Jn 3:16.

5. Since God’s love is eternal, He does not need motivation. To say that God has to be motivated is blasphemy. Therefore, God must not be confused with the function of the love of God as a part of, an expression of, a demonstration of the integrity of God. So with the function of the love of God in eternity past and in time, the function of that love is both antecedent grace and grace in time.

6. In providing the solution to the sin problem of the human race, the divine attributes related to the integrity of God are the issue (except in anthropopathisms).

7. The more we understand the doctrine of the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ and the impersonal love of God the Father, both in time and in eternity past, the more we focus our attention on divine love as a part of divine integrity as an issue rather than assigning the word motivation to eternal essence, the sooner we will come out of the fog.

8. It is important to understand the doctrine of the believer’s reciprocal love for God as a part of human motivation.

9. To get to know the love of God (Eph 3:19) results in thinking reciprocity as a part of the divine advance of the spiritual life to the high ground of PLEROMA and maximum glorification of God.

10. Summary.

a. Motivation is what is located inside the individual’s soul inciting action.

b. Hence, it is both the mental and/or emotional incentive or impulse. Mental attitude is not emotional.

c. A motive is any thought which determines a choice or induces action.

d. Inducement is an attractive consideration held out to persuade.

e. Impulse is an involuntary feeling prompting to act.

f. Therefore, motivation is a mental state or emotional force which induces an act of volition.

g. Motivation is the design or object one has in any action; hence, it is one’s intention or purpose.

h. Motivation is an act or process of furnishing with an incentive or inducement to a decision or action or both.

i. In the Christian life, the believer is either motivated by Bible doctrine in the soul and the filling of the Holy Spirit, which produce personal love for God, or by the lust pattern of the old sin nature and Satan’s cosmic system which produces good and evil.

j. Attitude toward doctrine and spiritual growth determines proper motivation.

D. Motivation is a human activity, which God is said to evaluate, 1 Cor 4:5, “Therefore, do not go on judging anything before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things that are in darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each person will have his praise from God.”

a. Motivation is very important fact in our spiritual life. It is a genuine function of believer’s in the spiritual life.

b. Motivation from personal love for God and Bible doctrine in the soul are the two simultaneous advancing columns in the soul.

c. Because motivation along with doctrine is the basis for the execution of the spiritual life, doctrine and motivation from reciprocal love advance together to spiritual maturity.

E. Negative motivation.

a. Jam 2:4, “Have you not made distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil motivation.” Evil motivation comes when we start judging other believers.

b. Jam 4:3, “You ask and receive not because you ask from wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” Our prayers are never answered when we ask from wrong motivation.

F. God’s love is not described as motivation, but as demonstration, Rom 5:8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us.” Demonstration is a synonym for revelation. God’s love is demonstrated because it has no beginning. Motivation has a beginning, but God has no beginning; therefore, He is not said to be motivated.

G. God is not said to be motivated by love.

a. Motivation requires a beginning, and God’s love has always existed without a beginning. God demonstrates what He has always had.

b. It is the believer, who becomes motivated, when he gets to know the love of God, Eph 3:19. Then the believer responds with love for God.

H. The Word of God is the critic of motivation, Heb 4:12.

Doctrine judges your motivation.

I. Evil is the source of anti-Christian motivation, Ps 21:11; 1 Cor 10:5-6; Mk 7:22-23.

J. False motivation hinders spiritual growth, Phil 2:14; Job 17:11.

K. The great issue in spiritual giving is motivation, 2 Cor 9:7.

L. For the mature believer, God turns evil motivation into grace blessing, Gen 50:20.

M. The motivation of the mature believer is often maligned, Ex 17:3.

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